How Coca-Cola GB’s Consumer Interaction Centre has become a big hit with the people it serves

Cookie Notification

We use cookies to deliver the best possible web experience. By continuing and using the site, including by remaining on the landing page, you consent to the use of cookies. If you wish to disable them, please take a look at our Cookies Policy. Please note that parts of the site may not function correctly if you disable all cookies.

How Coca-Cola GB’s Consumer Interaction Centre has become a big hit with the people it serves

We’ve always been interested in what our consumers have to say about us. That’s why we set up a rapid-response consumer interaction centre at our London base. Here, we take you behind the scenes.

At first glance, it looks just like a regular London office. There are groups of busy people plugged into laptops, shouldering phones and tapping away on keyboards. But, scratch the surface, and you’ll see that what the Coca-Cola GB consumer interaction team is doing is very far from regular indeed.

These dedicated experts are beavering away to give our consumers the best experience humanly possible when communicating with Coca-Cola. They’re chatting on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, they’re taking calls, they’re replying to letters and emails.

"Our consumer interaction team is expected to create a GIF in 20 minutes and get it approved internally in less than an hour."

There are 20 or so men and women at their desks. They’re all making connections with our consumers – answering their questions, listening to their views, gathering insights, sharing content with them. No query is too small, no conversation too trivial.

And the consumer interaction team doesn’t end here. Outside of the office, we have a virtual team ready to live-tweet from a Coca-Cola sponsored film premiere or fashion show at the drop of a hat.

Rise of social media

Social media has radically changed the way consumers expect to interact with brands. People are increasingly hopping on Twitter and Facebook to post complaints, compare levels of customer service or simply swap stories about a brand. They expect to get answers fast.

According to a recent UK survey published by the Institute of Customer Service and quoted in The Guardian, there was an eight-fold increase in complaints made on social media in 2014. At the same time, 39% of those surveyed said they were not using social media only to complain. They were also using it to connect and comment.

"One search term – such as ‘Coke’ or ‘Fanta’ – can deliver 600 live social results over 24 hours."

Here at Coca-Cola GB, we’ve always listened to what our consumers have to say. That’s why we made the decision in 2014 to expand our customer service team to include a huge new social media capability. We still have people who are responsible for handling consumer queries which come in by phone or email (or even snail mail). But they’re just one part of our Consumer Interaction Centre, which also includes a social listening team as well as various content creators.

Now we are able to provide real-time responses to people looking for information about our drinks or campaigns across all media touch points. And our consumers are impressed!